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What might cause an asteroid to leave its orbit and head towards earth?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
The short answer is: Gravity.
The more-detailed answer is:
Comets don't "head for the sun". Or rather I should say, if a comet heads for the sun,
it only does it once, and nobody ever sees that particular comet again.
Remember that no orbit is a circle. Every closed orbit is an ellipse, with the Sun at one
focus of the ellipse. No planet keeps exactly the same distance from the Sun throughout
its entire orbit.
The closer together the foci (focuses) of the ellipse are, the more nearly circular the orbit is,
and the farther apart they are, the more eccentric (elongated, squished, oval) the orbit is.
Earth is about 3.1 million miles farther from the Sun in early July than in early January ...
a difference of roughly 3% between our minimum and maximum distance from it.
Comets happen to be bodies with very eccentric orbits ... there's a great difference between
their nearest approach and farthest recession from the sun. So, during half of the orbit of a
comet with a highly eccentric orbit, it may appear as of it's 'heading for the sun'. But it's not.
It's in an orbit that passes relatively close to the Sun at its closest point (called 'perihelion'),
then rounds the sun and heads out to its farthest point (called 'aphelion'). Just as the Earth
does, but with the difference being a lot more than 3%.
Wiki User
∙ 9y ago
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoWhen the gravity of a passing planet or star disturbs part of this cloud, comets can be pulled toward the sun. The gravitational pull would cause a comet to head to the sun.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoAn asteroid can leave its orbit and travel into the inner solar system. This change may be caused by a collision with another asteroid, the gravitational pull from Mars, or the Sun's heat.
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What would cause the earth to leave its orbit?
it would probley be an explosion from the sun.
What process cause water to leave the ocean?
Evaporation.
How many times have space probes gone to earth?
Space probes leave Earth, they do not go toit.
Why is the troposphere cold?
hi,this is because you leave the earths atmosphere and usaly from earth once you leave the earth in the atmosphere it gets very cold.this must happen from the opposite from the sun so its like this.
Where do tornadoes go when they leave earth?
They don't go anywhere. When tornado "leaves earth" it dissipates and no longer exists.
If you leave the Earth travelling towards the sun which planet will you come to first?
If you leave the Earth traveling towards the Sun you will come to Venus first. Mercury and Venus are the two planets between the Sun and the Earth.
What causes most of the asteroids to remain orbiting in the asterdoid belt?
Gravity and inertia. The rocks in the asteroid belt are in free fall, and orbit the Sun under the influence of gravity. Sometimes they collide, and the fragments are knocked into different orbits, and sometimes those new orbits cause the objects to leave the asteroid belt. Some astronomers believe that the asteroid that hit the Earth 65 million years ago came from the asteroid belt after a collision like this.
What would cause the earth to leave its orbit?
it would probley be an explosion from the sun.
Why do the asteroids reach non vertically to the earth surface while colliding like that one which entered above Russians atmosphere and would it move non vertically if atmosphere is not present?
It has nothing to do with atmosphere. The earth and the asteroid are moving in roughly the same direction and the asteroid is not aimed at the center of the earth. Most asteroids will miss the earth, a few will pass close enough to enter the atmosphere then leave without hitting (some of these will explode before they can leave), others will hit at shallow angles.Perhaps one in a billion might hit near vertically.
What happens when an asteroid strikes the ground?
The asteroid becomes one or more meteorites and may leave a crater if the impacting piece was large enough.
Why do some asteroids leave there orbit?
They could be knocked out of orbit by being hit from a comet, or a 'rogue' asteroid that's not part of the asteroid belt.
What causes asteroids to leave the asteroid belt?
The smaller an asteroid, the more easily it can be "bumped" out of it's place by an exterior force. it's position and direction of movement will change. It may find itself gravitationally re-related to some other asteroid, in which case it will stay in the asteroid belt. Or, it may get effected in such a way that it is knocked toward the inner solar system, and it will begin to fall towards the sun - and it may or may not be gravitationally caught by one of the inner planets before it gets to the sun.
Can you leave Earth's gravity?
if you leave earth
What does don't worry about the world ending today it's already tomorrow in Australia?
Nobody can accurately predict the end of the world unless an asteroid hits the Earth. Please leave religion out of this because it has no place in a scientific question.
Is space travel ethical?
Absolutely.Humanity must leave the Earth if it wants to survive. The Earth has a finite lifespan, as does our Sun. As if that is not bad enough, many other threats exist, such as Asteroid impact.We must spread ourselves through the universe via Space Travel to survive as a species.Survival is ethical.
What are the problems due to asteroids near by earth?
As long as they near by Earth, there is no problem. It's when they "decide" to alter their probation order and leave their nice little orbit that things get "interesting". The main problem is because they are so close to Earth, any change - for whatever reason - it may not be detected, or if it is, the amount of time required before impact is so small that it's unlikely anyone could be warned. The largest Apollo asteroid object is 1866 Sisyphus about the same size as the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs.
When the earth leave its orbit?
Acording to Universe Sandbox, Earth will leave its orbit around 2600. But no. the sun will envelop Earth before it can leave orbit
